The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-06-02
Nprse Yptes.

It has been insisted, however, that
grass will not row around Raleigh,
and certainly if this were true it would
put a stop to all discussion, for it is
certain that stock cannot be proftably
raised where grass will not grow.
:. Capt. B. P. Williamson, however, land
he deserves a monument for doing it)
has demonstrated hat such is not the
case by spreading a carpet Of living
emerald over one of the baldest and
poorest hillsides in Wake county.
Not only is this true, but he has dem
onstrated that grass a be grown in
North Carolina more cheaply than
grass land can be bought in Kentucky.
Capt. Williamson says himself that he
was lavish even to extravaganza in the
use of manures, and yet to grow luxu-
RANT meadows in a place where even
broom sedge looked sickly, cost him
only $40 per acre and, not one foot of
Kentucky grass land can be bought
for less than $3.50 per acre, and so it
seems that in expense at least we have
the advantage.
But supposing it demonstrated that
the enterprise will pay, and that the
trotter is the best type to try, the
question of the best family of the
trotter is to be studied. Right here
the writer desires to say once for all
that he claims no monopoly Of knowl-
edge. He confesses that a year ago
he thought he did know it all, but
since that time he has been studying
the question hard. 1t took him only
a week to find out that he had a great
deal to learn, and now he hopes that
he may in time really learn something.
Meanwhile, as he knows the positive
ness with which he is prone to hold
and express his opinions, he proposes
in every case where an opinion is adj
vanced, to give the facts on which
such opinion is based in order that all
who may read may form their own
opinions. If sensible men, after
weighing the facts agree with the
writer, he will be confirmed in his
opinion. If they do not, he hopes
that they will designate points where
they disagree SO that he may again
study the facts bearing on the points,
and if they do not sustain his theory,
abandon it.
The science Of breeding horses is
not a abstruse one. Stovehaige
sums it up in the sentence "Like
produces like or the likeness of some
ancestor" In selecting a stock horse
therefore, it is necessary to see that he
has the qualities which it is sought to
perpetuate, and if he has them, to
examine his pedigree and see that his
ancestors have possessed the same
qualities. A horse may perpetuate
a quality, a trait or a habit which has
been evolved from his own personality,
but in order that he may transmit his
own qualities with any reasonable de-
gree of certainty, those qualities must
have been bred into him. It is espec-
tally necessary in selecting a trotting
horse, to breed from that he should
come from ancestors which have shown
the possession of speed and the ability
to transmit speed for the reason that
the science Of breeding trotters is still
in it's infancy. In 1879 the National
Association of Trotting Horse Breed
ers established a standard for the
breeding of trotters which for. the first
time formulated a guide for breeders
to 60 by. The association also founded
a Trotting Register. In this no horse
a be recorded who is not up to the
standard, and no mare unless she was
begotten by a standard horse or was
produced by a standard dam. Now
for the first time the venturers on the
sea of experiment were furnished a
compass by which to steer, and the
realscience Of breeding has progressed
more since 1879 than in all the years
which preceded it. It is necessary
then IN breeding trotters,. to select not
only such horses as trot, but such as
have an inheritance Of trotting speed.
A strong exemplifcation of this is
given by Smuggler, whose record of
2.15 IA was for a number of years
the head of the stallion record.
Smuggler was so thorough a failure
in the stud that in a few years his
value sunk from $40, 900 to less than
$1,000. He was a trotter. himself,
but he had no inheritance of trotting
speed, and hence could not transmit.
it, Whathar or not tO hauat cpood